The trickiest part is to escape the prejudice in your own head. For years I'd regarded opera as something my mum and sister did together, an elitist cultural cul-de-sac that had nothing of relevance to say to anyone. Then one day in October 1980 I got a phone call from my sister: my mother was ill and she had a spare ticket to see Verdi's Otello at the Royal Opera House. I replied: "Thanks, but no thanks." She said I could have the stalls ticket for free. "How much is it normally?" I asked. "£25," she said. That's what swung it. Back then, £25 was a small fortune. At the very least I'd get my money's worth by sneering. But within 20 minutes of the opening notes I was won over. Here was art at its most sublime: an overwhelming combination of music, drama and poetry.

Ticket price

You can't escape the fact that most opera doesn't come cheap: a full orchestra, chorus, set, designer, producer and director cost an arm and a leg even before you factor in the mega-fees of the soloists. At the ROH you pay top whack to hear the international superstars, but perhaps because these singers' schedules are so tight it can feel as if they have little time for rehearsal, so might sometimes feel short-changed.

That said, there are still deals to be had (see page 20). I've done my fair share of queuing up at 5am on the day of the performance to scrape up one of the cheap seats in the gods. And in London, the English National Opera is invariably a great deal cheaper than the ROH and the performances generally a lot tighter. Given the choice between seeing an opera brilliantly sung and poorly acted, or well sung and well acted, I'd take the latter every time. Opera isn't just singing; if it were it would be an oratorio. Opera is drama and the singers have to be credible actors.

Outside London, the Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera and Opera North also put on productions of a consistently high standard, and during the summer there are any number of touring opera companies and festival operas from which to take your pick. And then there's Glyndebourne. Yes, it's expensive, but everyone should try and go at least once in their life, because it is the most magical of settings and the most magical of opera houses, where musicians frequently reach heights they seldom attain elsewhere.

Dresscode

Glyndebourne is a place where it is easy to feel seriously underdressed. For all the other opera houses, no one bats an eyelid if I turn up in jeans. For Glyndebourne I wear a suit without a tie and still feel like a tramp.

What to see

The large companies will have up to 15 operas in repertory throughout the season (usually mid-September to July), so there's plenty of choice on offer. But for your first opera stick to one you've probably heard of, such as Mozart's Don Giovanni or The Marriage of Figaro or Verdi's Rigoletto or La Traviata. You'll find a performance of one of them somewhere – they are staples of the repertoire, not just because they tend to have the best tunes, but because they are simultaneously both complex and accessible.

If you want to give yourself the best chance of enjoying the experience it makes sense to see the best opera. If you were taking someone to see their first ever Shakespeare play, you wouldn't take them to see Timon of Athens. So don't make your first Mozart opera La Clemenza di Tito; it's very pretty in places but slow and quite hard work. Don't forget there's plenty of time to explore the rest of the opera repertory once you've explored the classics.

Homework

You should be prepared to do a bit of background research before the curtain rises. Even though many opera houses – including the ENO where all operas are sung in English – have surtitles for each performance, it never hurts to have mugged up on the opera before you go. Reading the entire libretto is probably a little overkeen, but there are plenty of books and websites offering you synopses. While there are some opera plots – Verdi's Il Trovatore comes to mind – that make absolutely no sense, most are surprisingly coherent, if inclined to melodrama. Don't let that put you off, though: you'll be amazed at how much more willingly and easily you can suspend disbelief in an opera house than a theatre. Don't ask me why.

A final word of warning. Wagner. Don't. At least not until you are something of an opera lag. And even then ... In my lifetime, I've sat through three complete Ring Cycles, several Tristans, Parsifals not to mention the Lohengrins, Flying Dutchmen and Tannhäusers with a Rienzi thrown in the mix, before finally admitting I can no longer be bothered. I just don't have the concentration or willpower to sit still for five hours waiting for the two or three moments of transcendent beauty. There again, you should probably make up your own mind.

So check the schedules and buy the tickets. And when you get to the opera house for the first time, leave yourself plenty of time to absorb the atmosphere and take a look around. Because once you've seen your way past the professional bores droning on about the Rosenkavalier they saw in Salzburg in 78 and the corporate hospitality ordering champagne for the interval, you'll also find plenty of other people who are just like you.

Glossary of terms

Aria A self-contained song within an opera

Bel canto Literally "beautiful singing", a style of Italian opera with pure tone and clean articulation, especially in the early 19th century (Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini)

Cabaletta Fast end section of an aria, especially in Italian opera, usually brilliant and showy

Coloratura From the German Koloratur. Highly elaborate decoration, often sung by a soprano as in Mozart's Queen of the Night

Da capo aria Form of aria favoured by Handel and others from late 17th and early 18th centuries in three sections, the middle a contrast, the third a repeat of the first

Leitmotif A short musical theme connected with a particular character or idea; associated with Wagner but used by others

Libretto "Little book", the words of an opera

Regietheater German term, not always complimentary, to describe a director-led opera (eg ENO's Carmen set in a car pound, Bayreuth's Lohengrin in which the townsfolk are rats)

Soubrette Stock operatic figure, usually a sharp-witted maid such as Mozart's Susanna or Zerbinetta, often but not necessarily soprano

Saturday afternoon's live-streamed Inside Opera event united all seven of the UK's publicly funded opera houses in an unprecedented collaboration that aimed to introduce new audiences to the art form. Hosted by Kirsten O'Brien, it featured live discussion and music, linkups to opera around the country, and prerecorded films looking at different aspects of creating opera today. Did it persuade Frances, Erica and Hannah that 'opera is an incredible amazing art form'?